ECUADOR:
The Manta Base - A Key Component of Plan Colombia?
Kintto Lucas

QUITO,  (IPS) - Reports that Colombian pilots are operating out of a U.S. military base in Ecuador have caused an uproar among the country's leftwing and indigenous groups, which are staunchly opposed to their country's involvement in the armed conflict in neighbouring Colombia.

A recent article by journalist Juan Carlos Calderón in the daily Expreso de Guayaquil reported that Colombian Air Force (FAC) pilots have long been flying at the side of Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE) pilots on joint missions out of Manta, on Ecuador's Pacific coast, 320 kilometres southwest of Quito. The base plays a key logistics role for aircraft taking part in the Colombian conflict.

On Sunday, Rich Boyd, commander of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) squadron based out of Manta, told the Guayaquil newspaper that one of the AWACS aircraft is operated by a FAC officer.

AWACS planes are flown by U.S. pilots, with an FAE officer as co-pilot to comply with the Manta Base Agreement, in which Ecuador leased the facilities to the U.S. Air Force for anti-drug operations.

The region's major anti-drug initiative is the U.S.-financed Plan Colombia, launched in 1999 by the Andrés Pastrana administration (1998-2002) as a strategy to combat drug trafficking and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.

But according to the newspaper account, Colombian pilots are joining the Ecuadorian pilots on AWACS flights.

Boyd said that each country's sensitive and confidential information is protected, because the Colombian officer exits the cockpit when the plane is in Ecuadorian airspace, and vice versa.

He also noted that the United States has 27 such planes, three of which are deployed at the U.S. base in Ecuador. Each is worth one billion dollars -- almost twice the FAE's entire 2005 budget.

Boyd told the newspaper these planes make it possible to monitor all radio conversations and radar signals within a 321.8-km radius.

An FAE official, who remained anonymous in the newspaper article, confirmed that Colombian pilots participate in AWACS flights in the context of intelligence missions between Ecuador and Colombia, but said they do not have contact with the base.

The same source said the Colombian pilots are limited strictly to missions on AWACS planes, and thus "have no contact with the Manta base or Ecuadorian troops; neither do they take part in joint initiatives -- they are active only when flying over Colombian territory."

The FAE noted that the Manta Base Agreement, signed in November 1999 between Quito and Washington, stipulates that "representatives of third parties will act as flight controllers in aircraft designated by the U.S. government to facilitate anti-drug operations."

The newspaper added that there can be no more than five controllers, and that the FAE "does not know how many Colombian soldiers fly AWACS," as only U.S. officials are privy to that information.

Ecuadorian Defence Minister Oswaldo Jarrín refuted the suggestion that Colombian soldiers operated planes based in Manta, and stated that the FAE provides weekly and monthly reports on U.S. activity in Manta.

According to Jarrín, "up to now, the agreement between the governments of Ecuador and the United States" has been respected. "An FAE officer is present on every surveillance flight conducted by the U.S.," the minister told IPS.

"They continue to deny that Manta is being used as a base for Plan Colombia operations, but how do you explain the fact that Colombian pilots operate out of Ecuador?" wondered Calderón.

Boyd's remarks about the Colombian pilots came on the heels of last week's announcement, made by Javier Delucca, the new U.S. commander of the Manta Base, who stated that the facility is "very important" within Plan Colombia, implying that Ecuador is involved in counterinsurgency activities in the neighbouring country.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Francisco Carrión responded immediately with a letter of protest, in which he categorically denied any Ecuadorian involvement in Plan Colombia, whether through the Manta Base or otherwise.

One of the most controversial aspects of Plan Colombia has been the aerial spraying of coca crops, which have had negative effects on the environment and the rural population.

Carrión believes the Manta Base compromises Ecuador's security, and has repeatedly said that he will not renew the lease when it expires in 2009 if he is still foreign minister.

The Manta Base Agreement was signed by then president Jamil Mahuad, then foreign minister Benjamín Ortiz, and the chairman of the congressional International Affairs Commission, Heinz Moeller.

However, the agreement was never passed in a plenary parliamentary session as required by the constitution, which is why analysts and social activists say it is unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, on Monday Ecuador's Permanent Assembly on Human Rights (APDH) accused the Colombian government of having resumed aerial spraying near the border with Ecuador.

Last week, Colombian Foreign Minister María Araújo said her country maintained its suspension of spraying of glyphosate, an herbicide toxic to humans.

But according to APDH activist Alexis Ponce, aerial fumigations were conducted Aug. 13--16 in the Colombian border province of Putumayo.

"They held a meeting to inform residents that spraying would resume, and then, on Aug. 17, through loudspeakers in Mocoa (the capital of Putumayo), they announced that the spraying was finished. This coincided with the visit by Colombia's foreign minister" to Quito, Ponce told IPS.

Residents of San Miguel, Orito and Guamez, towns in Ecuador's Sucumbíos province, on the Colombian border, have complained that their crops were ruined by the glyphosate, and announced that this week they would present evidence to authorities in Colombia.

The APDH also objected to Delucca's comments linking the Manta base with Plan Colombia. "We agree with the letter of protest sent by the Foreign Ministry, but it does not go far enough. We need to start treating these statements as if they were true," said Ponce.

Other civil society organisations have also expressed concern over the military base.

Humberto Cholango, president of the Quechua confederation (ECUARUNARI), the largest member of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), demanded that the government investigate the conditions under which the Manta base is being operated.

Indigenous lawmaker Ricardo Ulcuango announced that he would call on the defence minister to provide an explanation to Congress, and did not rule out the possibility of asking for a motion of censure.